A Contrastive Study Of Metaphorical And Metonymical Cognitive Mechanism As Devices Of Cohesion And Coherence In English And Chinese Discourses

With the development of cognitive linguistics, its study scope has extended from words, grammar to discourse. The study of metaphor and metonymy has widely attracted scholars'attention. Many scholars have also studied the cohesive and coherent function of metaphor and metonymy. However, their studies are mainly focused on that of metaphorical and metonymical language. In fact, behind the metaphorical and metonymical language, there are metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms that function. These metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms are quite pervasive in language. As means of thinking modes, they play important roles in discourse cohesion and coherence.In this thesis, the author, based on conceptual metaphor theory and frame theory, makes a contrastive study of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms between four versions of discourse: the first chapter of《围城》by Qian Zhongshu, its English version Fortress Besieged by Jeanne Kelly &Nathan K. Mao, the first four chapters of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and its Chinese version by Wang Keyi.Firstly, the author makes a contrastive study of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms between the first chapter of《围城》by Qian Zhongshu and first four chapters of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.Secondly, the author makes a contrastive study of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms between different versions of discourse to see the changes in translation.a. A contrastive study of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms between first chapter of《围城》and its English version.b. A contrastive study of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms between first chapter of《围城》and first four chapters of Pride and Prejudice's Chinese version.c. A contrastive study of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms between first four chapters of Pride and Prejudice and its Chinese version.d. A contrastive study of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms between first four chapters of Pride and Prejudice and first chapter of《围城》's English version: Fortress Besieged.Through the analysis of linguistic data, the author finds the following results:1) There are similar metaphorical cognitive mechanisms in English and Chinese discourses: iconic sequencing, iconic proximity as well as the iconic quantity. Metaphorical cognitive mechanism is the conceptual structure behind the metaphorical expressions, it is the cross-domain mapping. Iconicity, the iconic mapping, is also one kind of cross-domain mapping. It is the mapping between the form of linguistic structure and meaning of that structure. Therefore, iconicity is one kind of metaphorical cognitive mechanism. However, Chinese people and western people have different thinking modes; therefore, there are some differences of metaphorical cognitive mechanism in these two languages: Chinese discourse tends to follow the chronological order and spatial sequence while English discourse usually follows sequence of prominence. That is, expressions in Chinese discourse usually follow the natural order or sequence of the events while those in English discourse tend to put what the discourse organizer wants most to express at the first place, usually the beginning of linguistic expression. These are the results of thinking modes'mapping onto linguistic expressions.2) There are similar metonymical cognitive mechanisms in English and Chinese discourses: reference, substitution and ellipsis. The differences between English and Chinese discourses in terms of metonymical cognitive mechanism include: Chinese discourse tend to use zero-subject sentence with verbal clusters and repetition of the original expression. English discourse is more inclined to use verbal ellipsis and substitution. Chinese discourse prefers the use of这/这些in demonstrative reference and English discourse prefers to use that/those. Besides, the definite article is unique in English discourses.3) In translation, the typical metaphorical cognitive mechanism in English discourse becomes less marked in English discourse as translated version. The metonymical cognitive mechanism of verbal ellipsis in English discourses is changed into repetition of the original expressions. And the metonymical cognitive mechanism of zero-subject sentence in Chinese discourse tends to be converted into short sentences with present participle structures.This thesis falls into seven chapters.Chapter One serves as an introduction, introducing the research background, the purpose and the organization of the thesis.Chapter Two is literature review which contains two sections. The first section presents a brief survey of the study of cohesion and coherence and various theories of cohesion and coherence. The second section provides studies of metaphorical and metonymical linguistic expressions'cohesive and coherent functions.Chapter Three provides the theoretical framework for the present study, introducing the definitions of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms, the conceptual metaphor theory and frame theory.Chapter Four, the key part of the whole thesis, makes a contrastive study of metaphorical cognitive mechanism as cohesive and coherent device in English and Chinese discourses based on the data from《围城》and Pride and Prejudice.Chapter Five, also the key part of the whole thesis, makes a contrastive study of metonymical cognitive mechanism as cohesive and coherent device in English and Chinese discourses based on the data from《围城》and Pride and Prejudice..Chapter Six, based on the above data and their corresponding translated versions, makes a contrastive study of different versions of discourses in terms of metaphorical and metonymical cognitive mechanisms.Chapter Seven acts as the conclusion, making a summary of the whole thesis and with the limitations of the present study and the suggestions for future study.